Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of America Statement on the Emmanuel School Situation

The following statement was released by the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of America in response to the continuing affair regarding the parents of Emmanuel, Israel:

In the wake of the terrible slander of the Israeli High Court against our precious brethren in the Holy Land community of Emmanuel dedicated to the word of Hashem, who have been sent to prison for their devotion to the religious education of their daughters, we protest mightily the outrage and sin committed against them, and the twisted decision to force upon them a system of education that is against their way of life and the opinion of their rabbis.

The erroneous notion that a secular court has an authority above that of the holy Torah as understood by those who hold its banner aloft falsifies the Jewish faith and undermines the fundamental belief that the Torah is not subject to change, that it alone determines the life-choices of a Jew and is not subject to the authority of any secular system of justice.

And we join wholeheartedly, along with hundreds of thousands of Jews around the globe, in the prisoners’ pain. May their hands be strengthened. Fortunate are they for bearing the honor of Hashem and the Jewish religious tradition on their shoulders at this time.

May it be Hashem’s will that the name of Heaven be venerated in our times, and that His honor fill the entire earth.

To #3. It seems you did not follow the story. The Court is not demanding that the other students attend that school in Emanuel. The issue is that some parents pulled their own children out of that school and sent them to a different Chareidi school in Bnei Brak. The court is demanding that the Chareidim return their children to the school in Emanuel. This has nothing to do with funding. It has to do with the unheard of idea of the courts dictating to parents where they must educate their childrn.

The parents sent their children to a private, non-goverment-funded girls’ school in Bnei Brak. This too, was considered contempt of court.
Nevertheless, Judge Edmond Levy did mention last Tuesday that for the following school year if the parents receive the necessary permits to form their own school or transfer their children to a different school, the court cannot prevent them.